Jan. 11/2023: Now comes news over the past weekend that Charley Morgan, one of the great pioneers of fiberglass boatbuilding and design, left this world on Saturday, bound for whatever comes next. He was 93, and reportedly passed just a few hours after his wife Maurine died. Sailors of a certain age will remember Morgan...
March 18/2021: If you read blogs like this you likely know this already, so I’ll not belabor the news. Hats off to Team NZ for their successful defense of the America’s Cup, consummated yesterday in their seventh race win over Luna Rossa, the Italian challenger. Insert celebratory video here: The most important thing now is...
Feb. 22/2021: There we have it: the Italian Luna Rossa team will face Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup final next month. The Prada Cup final between Luna Rossa and INEOS Team UK, which ended yesterday with a 7-1 tally in favor of the Italian boat, was a real snooze, I have to say....
Nov. 19/2020: Hokey smokes! Can this be a coincidence? That the first aligning in 20 years of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, the two biggest in our solar system, and their closest conjunction since the year 1623, will occur next month, just as the two biggest races in sailing, the Vendée Globe and the America’s...
Dec. 20/2019: Someone had to do it first! And the Kiwis certainly seem pretty laid back about the whole business. This happened yesterday. Watch the viddy the team posted and you’ll see it was actually a fairly undramatic event. Their boat Te Aihe had completed a jibe and was flying its hull in about 10...
Oct. 11/2019: Since visiting the America’s Cup 36 scene last month to glimpse the launching of the first new foiling monohull AC75, I’ve noticed three more AC75s have launched, and lo, they have gone airborne too. The first to fly was American Magic’s Defiant (up top), which was launched soon after Team New Zealand’s Te...
Right! We’re getting closer to the interesting part of the run-up to the next America’s Cup, the part where people actually start sailing the boats they will race on. Team New Zealand stole a small march on the other four teams competing in this 36th edition of the event, when it launched the first full-size...
You have to hand it to the Kiwis and Italians who now control the fate of the Auld Mug: they are not lacking in imagination. Nor are they unwilling to take risks. Their concept for the new AC75 monohull in which the next America’s Cup cycle will be sailed, with a pair of canting T-foils...
No, I was not rooting for Oracle Team USA in this just-concluded edition of the America’s Cup. And yes, like many others, I am quite happy to see the Cup go back to Auckland with Emirates Team New Zealand, and I am looking forward to seeing a new chapter open in the ever-evolving story of...
It’s only a coincidence that I happen to be here while AC35 is going down, but it is a happy one. Yesterday I took full advantage of it and hopped on the special weekend ferry ($10 round trip) that runs direct from Ordinance Island in St. Georges out to the America’s Cup race village in...
